Volume 5 in the series Advances in Structural Biology is based upon a selection of articles presented at the Workshop on Molecular Bio-physics of the Cytoskeleton: Microtubule Formation, Structure, Function, and Interactions (August 18-22 1997 at the Banff Conference Centre in Banff, Alberta, Canada). Its main objective was to review the state-of-the-art of the field and stimulate a multidisciplinary investigation into the molecular biology of the cytoskeleton, which is amply manifested in the articles selected and published in this volume.